Last Mithras recording Beyond The Veil didn't nail everyone to the wall, nor did it make them run for the lobby and the nearest recording of "Nearer My God To Me." The same thing goes for this slab: Here, the duo serves up 12 tunes which alternate between underground (yes, it's being said) brutality and art rock pretentiousness and occasionally veer toward the accidentally comedic. The guitars are frequently afire, often sounding like they were lifted and updated from some vintage Manilla Road album; the drums are grating, mechanical and cliché; the songs actually offer memorable moments that you might speak, dream or even think of in the days that follow your initial listen. But for all the things that go right ("Under The Spheres," "Into Black Holes Of Oblivion"), others go wrong ("When The Light Fades Away," "Awaken Man And Stone"). (By the way: There's a moment, during "To Fall From The Heavens," when you wonder if the guys weren't listening to the soundtrack of Team America: World Police during the writing process. WTF?) Still showing promise four albums to its career Mithras is arriving at the point where it will have to live up to expectations or consider other options.

Track Listing1. The Journey And The Forsaken
2. To Fall From Heavens
3. Under The Three Spheres
4. Into Black Holes Of Oblivion
5. When The Light Fades Away
6. Behind The Shadows
7. Awaken Man And Stone
8. The Twisted Flower
9. To Where The Sun Never Leaves
11. Thrown Upon The Waves
12. Into The Unknown

Mithras: Behind The Shadows Lie MadnessPosted by Pete Pardo, SoT Staff Writer on 2007-05-08 07:09:50My Score: Mithras return with their third offering Behind the Shadows Lie Madness, a solid effort that sees the UK duo once again presenting their brand of symphonic death metal. Like some sort of collision between Vader and Emperor, tracks like "To Fall From the Heavens" (with some wild growling and clean vocal interplay), "Under the Three Spheres", "Behind the Shadows", and "Thrown Upon the Waves" combines brutality with melody quite nicely. The drum work from Leon Macey is at times a tad unrelenting, but his guitar skills are quite admirable, whether he is slaying with mammoth riffage or laying down complex lead fills. There's also a good amount of symphonic, dare we say progressive numbers here, littered with guitar and keyboard effects, which add a nice experimental and melodic touch. The vocals of bassist Rayner Coss sound very much like Peter from Vader, and are one of the highlights of the album. While some of the songs tend to be rather repetitive as far as the riffs and rhythms go, there is still plenty of good crunchy & technical death metal here, with just enough symphonic edge to add to the variety factor.

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